Multiple flights were diverted from Malaga Airport on Sunday night after an unidentified drone was spotted close to one of its runways.
The incident affected operations at the Costa del Sol’s main airport for around an hour, with incoming aircraft temporarily prevented from landing as a safety precaution.
Air traffic controllers said several flight crews had reported seeing a drone near the final approach to runway 12.
Arriving aircraft were placed into holding patterns while the incident was investigated, while details of the disruption were communicated through Eurocontrol’s operations network.
With aircraft unable to land, a number of flights were eventually forced to divert to alternative airports.
They included services arriving from Bristol, Birmingham, London and Cork, as well as flights from Madrid and Tirana.
Some aircraft were diverted to Sevilla Airport.
The disruption will have affected scores of British and Irish holidaymakers travelling to the Costa del Sol during one of the busiest periods of the summer.
At around 10pm on Sunday, controllers announced that approaches into Malaga had resumed.
However, they warned that it would take time for operations to return completely to normal following the backlog created by the incident.
The incident came just one day after another scare at Malaga Airport.
On Saturday, a Eurowings flight bound for Stuttgart was forced to return shortly after taking off amid concerns that its landing gear may have become stuck.
The crew declared a Pan-Pan emergency, which indicates an urgent situation requiring priority assistance but where there is no immediate danger to the aircraft or those on board.
Controllers reserved runway 12 for the returning aircraft and moved other operations onto runway 13 in case the Eurowings plane blocked the runway after touching down.
The aircraft subsequently landed safely and cleared the runway without incident.
Following an inspection, both runways returned to normal operations.
Read more Andalucia news at the Spanish Eye.
